Newser– Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86. The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family, said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday in Santa Rosa, California, following a cancer battle. When The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour debuted on CBS in the fall of 1967 it was an immediate hit, to the surprise of many who had assumed the network’s expectations were so low it positioned their show opposite the top-rated Bonanza, reports the AP.
25 Comments on One of the First “Counter Culture” Comedians Has Died
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Mom always liked him best.
🙂
One of my first albums was The Smother’s Brothers at the Purple Onion
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/The_Smothers_Brothers_at_the_Purple_Onion.png
Love it to this day!
Great Johnny Carson impression
https://youtu.be/oghxf-HS6go
They played dumb thinking they were being smart about social issues. Turns out they weren’t too bright about that either.
I have VERY FOND memories of watching The Smothers Brothers Show with my family as a kid. My dad LOVED laughing and he picked the shows we watched. Thanks for posting, Fur!
RIP
Enjoyed the show.
I likedndthem; but my kids LOVED ‘EM!
My Dad worked with the Brothers in Lake Tahoe in the casinos back in 59 when they were doing their folk act. Dad also gave Steve Martin his first banjo lessons when they both worked at Disneyland. Steve went on to write for the Smothers Brothers Show. Tom was a leftist nut but I’m still sad at his passing. RIP.
He got me into yo-yo and I went around pretending to be the yo-yo man as a kid.
“socially conscious” is a euphemism for radically leftist.
I was 9 when the debuted. I only have one good remaining brain cell but as I recall I enjoyed their show. Requiescat in pace Tommy.
FJB
They helped me develop my sick sense of humor, right along with Soupy Sales and Mad Magazine. A great tool for getting through life.
The Smother Brothers were a lot funnier and more relevant than Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In back in the late 60’s. My dad loved watching them along with me and my brothers, we particularly liked the antics and commentary of Pat Paulsen and the musical montage with Mason Williams playing Classical Gas. RIP, Tommy and thanks for the laughs. I am the oldest brother also so I can also say that mom always liked me best since I was the first.
Soupy Sales, Mad Magazine and the Smothers Brothers rule while Laugh In was not as cool.
I fell in a vat of chocolate
I fell in a vat of chocolate
What’d you do when you fell in the chocolate?
Lolly doo-dum, lolly doo-dum-day
Well, I fell in a vat of chocolate
I just fell in a vat of chocolate…
Wait a minute, wait a minute
You just said you fell in the vat of chocolate
I know, I just fell right in this vat of chocolate
I know, and I asked you a question
I said, “What did you do when you fell in the chocolate?”
I swam a lot, there’s uh
There’s uh thirty-foot vat
It was just full of chocolate
Thirty foot across?
No, deep, was thirty feet deep
Full of chocolate
And I fell right into it
And I, I uh
Well what’d ya, what happened?
What did you do after you fell in?
Well, I uh, …
Okay, then what happened, Tom?
What did you do after you fell? Did…
Well, I, I … yelled “fire,” uh
I yelled “fire” when I fell into the chocolate
I yelled “fire” when I fell into the chocolate
Tom, why’d you yell “fire” when you fell into the chocolate?
Lolly doo-dum, lolly doo-dum-day
Well…
Now I want you to think about it, Tom
It must have been a very traumatic experience
Oh, it’s just a horrible experience
I had chocolate all over me
I was swimming around like that, yelling “fire”
Well, what possessed you to yell “fire”
When you fell into this vat of liquid chocolate?
Well, I
There was no fire
You were in the chocolate and you yelled “fire”
That’s pretty, uh, ridiculous if you ask me
It certainly is, uh, when I …
I just yelled “fire” when I fell into the chocolate
No, Tom, why’d you yell “fire” when you fell into the chocolate?
Well, I yelled “fire” because no one
Would save me if I yelled, “CHOCOLATE!”
Lolly doo-dum, lolly doo-dum-day-ay-ay
Anyone else remember their sitcom?
Off topic: We used to go see Pat Paulsen who was a regular at the Ice House. He came out on the stage with a round bandaid on his forehead. “You’re probably wondering why I have this bandaid on my head. I was putting on some toilet water and the lid hit me in the head”. Sort of funny the shit you remember…
I am not a fan of his politics. Ignoring that, I am happy that Tom visited my cousin who was suffering from cancer a few years ago. RIP
The people of my youth are dropping like flies.
I enjoyed the Smothers brothers as a kid.
RIP Tommy
There are pumas in the crevasses. Maybe they are visiting..
Pandemonium will have heavy rotation in the Fish household this weekend. Debralee Scott was so hot!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084464/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_pandemoni
Seems like a lot here didn’t care for their politics. As I recall they had a network STFU moment…and they didn’t.
Were they wrong about Vietnam?
Yes, Jeffery, they were. The Killing Fields, the re-education camps, and the Boat People – 6 million – prove it.
The were Leftist asses working for a Leftist ass named William Palinsky who owned Commie Broadcasting System and most of their “humor” was pretty childish.
19 at the time.
One routine they had is applicable to today’s situation:
“A recent survey indicates those people who wear less clothes,
the “less ons”, don’t get involved in politics”
“So who’s running the country?”
“The more-ons”. ;^)
He and his brother (who Mother always liked best) were Leftists.